and the woman to whom he sent Unays, saying: ‘Go to this man’s wife; if she confesses, stone her.’ So he stoned her.”

Looking with desire at the face of a beardless youth is like looking with desire at the face of a woman whom one is permanently forbidden to marry or a non-mahram woman. This applies whether the desire is for intercourse or for the pleasure of looking, just as one might take pleasure in looking at a non-mahram woman’s face. Everyone knows that this is forbidden; the same applies to looking at the face of a beardless youth, by the consensus of the imams.

To say that looking at the face of a beardless youth is an act of worship is like saying that looking at the faces of non-mahram women, or at one’s female relatives whom one is permanently forbidden to marry—such as one’s daughter, mother or sister—is an act of worship. It is well known that whoever regards such forbidden looking as worship is like someone who regards acts of indecency as worship. Allah Most High says:

“When they commit an indecency, they say, ‘We found our forefathers doing it, and Allah has commanded us to do it.’ Say, ‘Allah does not command indecency. Do you say about Allah what you do not know?’”

It is well known that the physical forms of non-mahram women and women whom one is permanently forbidden to marry may offer lessons and indications pointing to the Creator of the same kind as those found in the physical forms of beardless youths. Would any Muslim say that a person may look in this way at the forms of women throughout the world and of his own female relatives whom he is permanently forbidden to marry, and claim that this is worship? Rather, whoever regards this kind of